No stars on set for Stoughton’s ‘Little Women’ cameo

Friday

Oct 12, 2018 at 5:45 PMOct 12, 2018 at 5:55 PM

Stoughton’s spruced-up train station, vacant since 2007, stole the show in an afternoon with no celebrity sightings.

STOUGHTON — The film crew for Greta Gerwig’s movie adaptation of “Little Women” visited Stoughton’s historic train station on Friday, drawing attention and excitement to a building that has sat shuttered for more than a decade.

But as dozens of fans – young and old – lined Wyman Street, hoping to catch a glimpse of Meryl Steep, Emma Watson or Timothee Chalamet, the film’s numerous stars were nowhere to be found.

A stream of extras in 19th-century costume could be seen walking from the Portuguese National Club, where Columbia Pictures rented space on Thursday and Friday for costume changes, to the historic train station next to Stoughton’s MBTA Commuter Rail platform.

Despite announcements from the film crew that no “A-list” actors would attend the shoot, fans were willing to wait through the afternoon just in case.

“There’s a bakery if I get hungry,” said Harry Byrne, a 22-year-old student who had the day off from classes at Holy Cross College in Worcester, who hoped to see Streep or Chalamet. “And a port-a-potty.”

Wendy Sikes, 69, of Stoughton, said her knowledge of the original ‘Little Women’ novels, written by Louisa May Alcott in the 1860s, gave her a leg up in guessing which actors might arrive on set.

She recounted a number of scenes that involved characters from the novel in transit, and deduced that Laura Dern, who plays Marmee March in Gerwig’s film adaptation, would be the most likely appearance.

But as the day wore on, the lack of movie stars hardly seemed like an anticlimax. Fans were mingling and meeting business owners and longtime residents. And a number of locals came out just to check out the train station, which has buzzed with activity since set designers and security guards arrived on Wednesday.

With the words “Concord Station” newly emblazoned in the window, and a truck-full of antique luggage and furniture filling the vacant building, the station had a fresher look than usual.

“They’ve cleaned it up,” said Sikes. “It looks beautiful.”

An MBTA spokesman said Columbia Pictures paid the state agency more than $20,000 to open the historic building and its parking spaces to Gerwig's film crew. It has been shuttered since 2007, according to Dwight MacKerron, president of the local historical society.

“It’s nice to see this train station in Stoughton being recognized for the great building that it is,” said Jeremy Sheehan, 54, who runs the JD Drum School on nearby Bay Road.

Sheehan, who studied television production in college, said he and his wife Julia would hang out on set for the rest of the day just to see the film getting made.

“Hey, I got nothing to do,” said Julia. “Not my best hair day but whatever.”

Throughout the day, as trains pulled into the Commuter Rail platform with little regard for the ongoing film shoot, passengers like Kayla Vazquez, 23, joined the crowd surrounding the station.

“I’m just being nosy,” she said, hoping to run into Streep before walking home.

Darryl Hammond, 55, a lifelong resident of Stoughton, was also waiting to see Streep but said “if I miss her I know she has better things to do than come out and meet me.”

“I just really love seeing Stoughton’s depot being used,” he added.

Nearby, Arthur Tilton Jr., 56, of Stoughton, was excitedly showing fans of Streep and Watson a book on the station’s history.

“Little Women” is scheduled to shoot from October through December in Boston, Canton, Carlisle, Concord, Harvard, Ipswich and the Lexington-Burlington area. The film, which also stars Saoirse Ronan and Bob Odenkirk, is slated to hit theaters around Christmastime in 2019.

“Of anywhere in the world, they picked Stoughton,” said Raquel Walecka, 12, who arrived with a crowd of middle-schoolers hoping to spot Emma Watson on their way to an afterschool program. “It’s crazy.”